1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a height position detector for detecting the height position of an upper surface of a work, such as a semiconductor wafer, held on a chuck table provided in a machining apparatus such as a laser beam machining apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a semiconductor device manufacturing process, a surface of a semiconductor wafer in a roughly circular disk-like shape is provided with a plurality of regions demarcated by planned dividing lines called streets arranged in a grid pattern, and devices such as ICs and LSIs are formed in the thus demarcated regions. Then, the semiconductor wafer is cut along the streets, whereby the regions with the devices formed therein are divided from each other, to manufacture the individual devices. Similarly, an optical device wafer in which a gallium nitride compound semiconductor and the like are stackedly formed on a surface of a sapphire substrate is cut along planned dividing lines into individual optical devices such as light emitting diodes and laser diodes, which are widely utilized for electric apparatuses.
As a method for dividing the semiconductor wafer, the optical device wafer or the like along the streets formed therein, a laser beam machining method has been attempted in which irradiation of the wafer with a pulsed laser beam is conducted by using a pulsed laser beam transmissive to the wafer and by positioning a light condensing point in the inside of the regions to be divided. In the dividing method using the laser beam machining method, a wafer is irradiated from one side thereof with a pulsed laser beam transmissive to the wafer which has a wavelength of, for example, 1064 nm while positioning the light condensing point in the inside of the wafer, so as to continuously form a denatured layer in the inside of the wafer along the streets, and the work is divided by exerting an external force along the planned dividing lines lowered in strength by the formation of the denatured layer (refer to, for example, Japanese Patent No. 3408805).
However, where the plate-like work such as a semiconductor wafer has undulation and has a dispersion of its thickness, the denatured layer cannot be formed uniformly at a predetermined depth through the irradiation with a laser beam, due to a factor associated with the refractive index of the work. Therefore, in order to form the denatured layer uniformly at a predetermined depth in the inside of the semiconductor wafer or the like, it is necessary to preliminarily detect the projection-and-recess form of the region to be irradiated with the laser beam, and to cause laser beam irradiation means to track the projection-and-recess form at the time of machining.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the present applicant has proposed a laser beam machining apparatus having height position detecting means by which a face-side surface (upper surface) of a work held on a chuck table is irradiated with a visible laser beam, and, based on the quantity of light corresponding to the area of reflection by the face-side surface (upper surface) of the work, the height position of the face-side surface (upper surface) of the work is detected (refer to, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2007-152355).
In the height position detecting means disclosed in the just-mentioned laid-open patent publication, in the case where the wafer as the work is formed of silicon, the visible laser beam is not transmitted through the work and, therefore, the quantity of light corresponding to the area of reflection by the face-side surface (upper surface) of the work can be measured accurately. However, in the case where the wafer is formed of sapphire or quartz having transparency to the laser beam, the laser beam is not only reflected by the face-side surface (upper surface) of the work but also reflected by the back-side surface (lower surface) of the work, so that it is impossible to measure only the quantity of the light reflected by the face-side surface (upper surface) of the work. Therefore, it is impossible, by the height position detecting means disclosed in the laid-open patent publication, to detect the height position of a work formed from a material having a transparent property.